Fourth Part
A new book details the dwindling presence of Muslims in the decision-making apparatus of the country’s financial sector
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — The number of Muslims in banking and financial sectors’ management teams has dwindled over the past 75 years, with their presence being minimal in insurance companies, payment aggregators and credit-rating agencies.
For the 200 million-strong community, the socially-relevant and economically-vibrant sectors have oscillated between stagnant and dwindling stages due to a variety of factors, including government negligence, reservation policies, and unsatisfactory levels of interest among the community in the multi-cultural nation to study specialised banking and finance-related degrees and courses.
Muslims, according to the US-based Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), “face discrimination in employment and education and encounter barriers to achieving wealth and political power.” In 2013, the Sachar Committee reported in every government department or agency the share of Muslims is extremely small and in some departments, it is virtually nil. India has the world’s third-largest Muslim population, about 14.2 percent of the total population as per the last census held in 2011.
Their cultural and religious identity have been getting shredded since 2014 and the community has been fighting an increasingly open hate and discrimination agenda. The community has remained in a whirlpool of front-paged discrimination in every socio-economic domain. There is hardly any socio-economic domain in which their representation could be considered satisfactory.
In 12 nationalized or public sector banks, the total number of employees is about 680,000 of whom Muslims are 15,030. No Muslim has become the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) whose count stands now at 25. Among its 62 Deputy Governors, only one Muslim occupied the place – Harun R Khan for five years from 2011. Among the 134 Executive Directors the RBI had, only seven came from the Muslim community. Among the 151 in the management teams of the RBI, only two are Muslims. The number of Muslims in the Boards of Directors or key management personnel in banks is also unimpressive.
A total of 91 commercial banks operate in India, of which 20 are Public Sector Banks (PSBs) including SBI, the largest. Currently, 34 nationalised banks operate of which 12 are government banks and the rest 22 private sector banks. Out of 190,00 RBI employees, 150 were Muslims, constituting 0.78 percent. In nationalised banks, the total number of employees stood at 680,000, of whom Muslims were 15,030. Among the 7637 members of the banks’ management teams and senior executives, 235 belong to the Muslim community.
In the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), 18 of its 1,061 top executives are Muslims. No Muslim headed the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDIA) which had five chairpersons since it was formed in 1999 as an autonomous and statutory body responsible for managing and regulating the insurance and re-insurance industry in India. Also, no Muslim had been its member. IRDAI has a 10-member in its top management including the chairman, five full-time and four part-time members appointed by the Union government.
Muslims in the management teams of insurance companies are also at the worst levels. In the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), only five are Muslims among 473 team members. In the Agriculture Insurance Company of India, there is no Muslim in the 176-member management team. Aditya Birla Sun has no Muslims among its 30-member management team; Aegon has only three among the 91-member team, Aviva counts four Muslims among 187 team members while Bajaj Allianz’s 117 team has six Muslims. Canara HSBC has five among 158 team members. HDFC has 10 Muslims in the 143-member team while the ICICI Prudential counts 11 Muslims among the 96-member team and Kotak Life has 12 among 249 team members. Max Life’s 446-member team has 19 Muslims. PNB MetLife has 172 members with 10 Muslims, and SBI Life has eight Muslims among the 176-member team. Taking into account all types of insurance companies, the total key management personnel numbers 11,564 of which 304 are Muslims.
When it comes to the payment gateway aggregators in India which handles Rs9.5 trillion annually, the scene of the Board of Directors and Key Management Personnel is not rosy as well. Pay TM, used by 300-plus million Indians, has 24 Muslims among the 242-member team. Razor Pay counts 11 among the 257-member team. Ru Pay, a National Payment Corporation of India’s (NPCI) initiative to boost retail payments, has only one Muslim among the 21-member team. CRED, a platform that allows credit card users to manage multiple cards, has three Muslims among its 85-member team.
Mobi Kwik has seven Muslims among its 155-member team. Pay Zapp, an HDFC Bank company, has no Muslim among its 70-member team. Amazon Pay counts 17 Muslims among its 156-member team. Google Pay has three Muslims among the 61-member team. Zomato Pay has four Muslims among the 58-member team. Taking into account all the payment aggregators, 129 of the senior management team members out of the total 2017 are Muslims. When it comes to Muslims in senior management teams of Credit Information and Rating companies, one can count Muslims on one finger. Credit Information Bureau India Limited (CIBIL) has only one Muslim among its 68 members while Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited (CRISIL) has five Muslims among its 240-member team. Small and Medium Enterprises Rating Agency of India (SMERA), the world’s first SME Rating Agency has one Muslim among its 44-member team.
The Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency of India (ICRA) has on its rolls three Muslims among the 87-member management team. In all, this domain has 33 Muslims out of the 1,018 in senior positions. No Muslims are represented in the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) which has 14 board directors, seven technical advisory committee members, and 19 key management personnel.
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Author’s Email Contact – mannan1964@yahoo.com
